Quiz 7 Study Guide - Introduction to Western Civilization 2 | HUM 102 | Study notes Cultural History of Europe

Quiz VII (Lust)

Humanities 102: Introduction to Western Civilization

Mr. Vehse

1. Simon Blackburn begins his survey of the "deadly sin" of lust with a quote. By whom is this quote

regarding lust?

2. In the introduction, the philosopher, Simon Blackburn, quotes another philosopher on the subject of lust:

"[it] interrupts the most serious business at any hour, sometimes for a while confuses even the greatest

minds." Who is this other philosopher?

3. What does Blackburn wish to do with respect to lust in this book?

4. The philosopher and cynic of ancient Greece, Crates, was famous for believing nothing was shameful.

What did he supposedly do to express this view?

5. What does Blackburn think about our supposedly emancipated or, at least, openly sexualized culture?

6. What seemingly bothers Simon Blackburn most about public attitudes toward sexuality in the United

States?

7. Who else, in his view, does not have an especially enlightened public attitude and policy toward

sexuality?

8. Blackburn mentions "disqualifications," reasons he might not be the right person to discuss lust. How

many disqualifications does he cite?

9. What is the first disqualification?

10. Blackburn cites a famous Englishman on the subject of lust: "the pleasure is momentary, the position

ridiculous, and the expense damnable." Who said this?

11. Alexander the Great was the pupil of a famous philosopher? Who was his teacher?

12. Who, according to Medieval legend, seduced Aristotle in front of his most famous student?

13. "Sexual activity encompasses many things," writes Simon Blackburn. "We should talk not of pleasure

but of pleasures, in the plural." When he presents a life-like scenario of desire, who are the players or

imaginary actors in it?

14. In wanting something, someone could be too much preoccupied or obsessed by it, according to

Blackburn. A person might want not just power but complete power, not just gold but all the gold there is.

How does this problematic kind of wanting relate to the issue of lust, as westerners have worried about the

influences on life of sexual desire?

15. "The activity that relieves our lust," writes Simon Blackburn, "typically blocks out other functions." In

this regard, it might seem uniquely excessive, admitting of no moderation. How does he seem to feel about

the tendency of lust or sex to lead to ecstasy, what he also calls "extremes of abandon?"

16. Christian mystics often described their communion with a higher power, with God, in erotic metaphors.

What artist depicted Saint Teresa of Avila in sculpture as if she were in the throes of orgasm?

17. What is Blackburn's thinking with respect to the charge that lust must be condemned on account of its

inherent tendency to excess?

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Quiz VII (Lust) Humanities 102: Introduction to Western Civilization Mr. Vehse

Simon Blackburn begins his survey of the "deadly sin" of lust with a quote. By whom is this quote regarding lust?
In the introduction, the philosopher, Simon Blackburn, quotes another philosopher on the subject of lust: "[it] interrupts the most serious business at any hour, sometimes for a while confuses even the greatest minds." Who is this other philosopher?
What does Blackburn wish to do with respect to lust in this book?
The philosopher and cynic of ancient Greece, Crates, was famous for believing nothing was shameful. What did he supposedly do to express this view?
What does Blackburn think about our supposedly emancipated or, at least, openly sexualized culture?
What seemingly bothers Simon Blackburn most about public attitudes toward sexuality in the United States?
Who else, in his view, does not have an especially enlightened public attitude and policy toward sexuality?
Blackburn mentions "disqualifications," reasons he might not be the right person to discuss lust. How many disqualifications does he cite?
What is the first disqualification?
Blackburn cites a famous Englishman on the subject of lust: "the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable." Who said this?
Alexander the Great was the pupil of a famous philosopher? Who was his teacher?
Who, according to Medieval legend, seduced Aristotle in front of his most famous student?
"Sexual activity encompasses many things," writes Simon Blackburn. "We should talk not of pleasure but of pleasures, in the plural." When he presents a life-like scenario of desire, who are the players or imaginary actors in it?
In wanting something, someone could be too much preoccupied or obsessed by it, according to Blackburn. A person might want not just power but complete power, not just gold but all the gold there is. How does this problematic kind of wanting relate to the issue of lust, as westerners have worried about the influences on life of sexual desire?
"The activity that relieves our lust," writes Simon Blackburn, "typically blocks out other functions." In this regard, it might seem uniquely excessive, admitting of no moderation. How does he seem to feel about the tendency of lust or sex to lead to ecstasy, what he also calls "extremes of abandon?"
Christian mystics often described their communion with a higher power, with God, in erotic metaphors. What artist depicted Saint Teresa of Avila in sculpture as if she were in the throes of orgasm?
What is Blackburn's thinking with respect to the charge that lust must be condemned on account of its inherent tendency to excess?

"The Greeks took it as natural," writes Simon Blackburn, "that beautiful boys excite lust in men." How, according to the ancient Greeks, did lust threaten the orderly transaction of daily life?
If, according to Plato, the individual practiced self-control and chose to resist lust, to abstain from sex, to what could ancient Greek men and the "beautiful boys" to whom they were attracted aspire?
If men and the boys to whom they were attracted could not resist and consummated their relationship, what was the attitude of the ancient Greeks?
"There is no implication in Plato," writes Blackburn, "that either desire or pleasure is, in itself, to be destroyed or uprooted or is by itself the cause of calamity and disaster." What, then, is necessary to prevent desire from becoming too great?
On the subject of masturbation, the English author, Oscar Wilde, observed that it was "cleaner, more efficient, and you meet a better class of person." Long before, the ancient Greek philosopher and member of the school of the Cynics, Diogenes, apparently even engaged in the act publicly. Why, according to Blackburn, did Diogenes think it appropriate?
A student of Diogenes took the idea one step further, reportedly engaging in public sex with his wife, Hipparchia, "on the steps of the temple as they got married," as well as on other occasions thereafter. Who was this second controversial philosopher?
"The Stoic motto, in general, is ’Do not disturb,'” according to Blackburn. Emotions that threaten self- control are the enemies. Proper decorum includes suppressing any disturbance that might accompany the desire for pleasure. How does Blackburn describe the influence of the Stoics, philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome, on western thinking about the topic of lust?
Blackburn employs strong language to characterize the influence of early Christian thinkers on attitudes toward lust in Western civilization. What term, in particular, does he use when speaking of founders like Saint Augustine?
Why, in Blackburn's view, is Saint Augustine suspicious as a guide to developing attitudes toward lust?
"By the time of Augustine," writes Simon Blackburn, "many had held that the only fitting life for a Christian was monkish seclusion in the desert." For more than a century, what way of life or general attitude toward lust and sex had been considered superior, indeed ideal, within the Church?
If the ancient Greeks taught caution and self-control with regard to sexual desire, what lesson arose out of early Christian thinking on the subject?
The crux of the issue of lust, for early Christianity, was the Fall: Adam & Eve driven out of the garden of Eden. Though he seems eventually to have changed his mind, early on which answer did Augustine prefer to the question, "Was there sex in the garden of Eden?"
"Adam and Eve would have felt neither lust nor pleasure," writes Simon Blackburn, describing Saint Augustine's sexual theology. "In Paradise, people could control their sexual organs as they do their other limbs." To what does Blackburn compare Augustine's idea of sex before the Fall?
In Augustine's hierarchy of Christian perfection, what is second best, coming right after life-long virginity?
Some people have been inclined to argue that sex is exclusively for procreation. Simon Blackburn disagrees. What evidence does Blackburn cite to suggest that nature does not "follow any one particular script, when it comes to sex, including male and female roles?"

Two cultural expressions of lust, according to Simon Blackburn, represent cases fraught with difficulty. They remain particularly problematic, because in neither case is there a chance of Hobbesian unity. What are these cases?
In the calculus of evolutionary psychology, according to Blackburn, the relative size of the human male reproductive apparatus suggests: "that males are built for sperm competition, designed to swamp their competitors' teeming residues." What does this simple measurement seem to indicate about the so-called "standard story" of human females' supposedly biological inclination to modesty, chastity, and dependence upon men?
Pessimism with respect to lust abounds, according to Simon Blackburn. There is the pessimism that asks too little, as in the case of objectification: "The lust of the objectifier... [seeks] only [his/her] private gratification or merely the Kantian use of another's organs." There is also the pessimism that asks too much. What 20th-century philosopher made sex seem like an effort by one person permanently to take over the consciousness of another?
In the 19th century, the lustful woman was considered degenerate, a monstrous goddess and creature of evil who struck fear in the hearts of men who wished to control and dominate. In the 20th century, writes Simon Blackburn, "it was not too difficult to transfer these fears to other degenerates." What, according to Blackburn, does fear of lust quickly translate into?

Quiz 7 Study Guide - Introduction to Western Civilization 2 | HUM 102, Study notes of Cultural History of Europe

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